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            <p class="center"><img src="img/banner_hosting.jpg" alt="Hosting resources" class="curved"></p>
            <h2 id="top">Page updated: 19 May 2025</h2>
            <p>AKA "Site & server hosting for cheap assholes", because I myself am a cheap asshole.</p>
            <p>My first encounter with having to do any sort of HTML or CSS work was in the 2000s with Neopets, and my first run-in with Linux was in 2013/2014 when Windows update borked my laptop, and I decided to try out the mysterious free alternative OS that I heard about on my home forum once.</p>
            <p>After that, I originally got involved in the Neocities scene in 2017 or so when I saw it as a better host than Tumblr pages for my very cool and very important bio (Tumblr pages had a penchant for breaking your HTML every now and then). After that, I got super into the whole DIY site thing, and it was downhill from there. All for free!</p>
            <p>However, Neocities is actually quite limiting without turning to Javascript, and so once I wanted to advance past that, by 2018 I had purchased my first VPS ("virtual private server", pretty much just a VM in the cloud that you pay for).</p>
            <p>That being said, once you get past the the initial phase, everything starts to involve an ever-increasing amount of money. So what can you do if you wanna be a cheap asshole?</p>
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            <h1 id="hosting-web">Web hosting</h1>
            <h2>Free options</h2>
            <p>There's a fair amount of true free web hosts that I'm aware of, so we'll start here:</p>
            <ul>
                <li><a href="https://neocities.org">Neocities</a></li>
                <li><a href="https://nekoweb.org">Nekoweb</a></li>
                <li><a href="https://web.fc2.com/en/fc2html/main.html">FC2 Web</a></li>
                <li><a href="https://pages.github.com">GitHub Pages</a> (I think Gitlab, Codeberg, etc. also offer something similar)</li>
            </ul>
            <p>Neocities and Nekoweb are very close in what they offer, and both offer premium paid options that get you more features. Neocities is now a classic option that I think has been around for almost 10 years now, but these days I would probably recommend Nekoweb over Neocities, as it's more actively maintained and their premium (that gets you FTP uploading and custom domains) is cheaper than Neocities.</p>
            <p>Web FC2 is JP site host. They actually allow FTP access to your site for free, which is a godsend and something that I hate that Neocities charges for (their stupid UI has been the same since I started using Neocities in 2017). However, their UI is outdated and a bit convuluted, and if you're into the "community" aspect of something like Neocities or Nekoweb, you won't find it here.</p>
            <p>GitHub Pages allows you to make a website from a git repo, and it'll get you a nice little domain like "username.github.io" by default, but you can actually configure a custom domain for free with it. If you're familiar with Git I think this is probably the best option for maintaining your site, but it's 0% user friendly if you are just getting into this for the first time and have no idea what you're doing.</p>
            <h2>Paid options</h2>
            <p>I'm gonna be real with you: I am not making a list of these. You can use your search engine of choice to find 500 options, but tbh if you're gonna pay I recommend just getting a server/VPS as it gives you full freedom to host whatever the hell you want (including software that could be useful to you).</p>
            <p>However, if hosting a server is too daunting for you, I'd recommend just getting a paid plan with one of the free hosts. I used Neocities for years, and it was honestly fine until I wanted to branch out into PHP and server-side scripting.</p>
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            <h1 id="hosting-server">Server hosting</h1>
            <h2>Free options</h2>
            <p>The only true free host that I know of (that isn't just giving you a trial) is <a href="https://www.oracle.com/cloud/free/">Oracle Cloud's Always Free tier</a>. Their UI is kinda crap, the server specs are extremely limited, and the firewall setup they have is wonky as hell, but they otherwise do give you an amazing amount of storage (200 GB) and othewise it's a solid service. I personally use mine for various web stuff and my Navidrome server!</p>
            <p>When I was first looking into Oracle Cloud I saw a lot of mixed reviews and skepticism about it online, but I think I've been using it for 2ish years now with no issue? They do require a valid credit card to sign up, but as long as you stay within the free limitations you should be fine. The free account limits are so:</p>
            <ul>
                <li>Limited to one server area (mine is Toronto)</li>
                <li>200 GB storage (can be split across multiple VPS instances)</li>
                <li>1 OCPU core (2.0 GHz AMD EPYC 7551 apparently, it's kinda slow)</li>
                <li>1 GB RAM (but you can add swap!)</li>
            </ul>
            <p>Do note that they will initially give you trial credits for your first 30 days -- DO NOT USE THESE and stay within the free limits, and your server will remain after the trial expires!</p>
            <h2>Paid options</h2>
            <p>Like paid web hosts, there are way too many options to list here, so I recommend just going on Reddit or something and finding what works best for you. However, the most popular options I've seen around seem to be Digital Ocean and Hetzner.</p>
            <p>Personally I've been with <a href="https://www.vultr.com/?ref=7565864">Vultr since 2018</a> (disclaimer: that's my referral link) and haven't had any issues with them. It's a bit pricy these days for me since they charge in USD, but I've had good experiences with their services and support so I've been sticking around despite that.</p>
            <h2>The classic free option - host it at home!</h2>
            <p>Do you have a spare computer lying around? Install Linux on it and play around!</p>
            <p class="center"><img src="img/izzy.jpg" alt="Izzy's idea of a fun night is upgrading his computer" class="curved"></p>
            <p>Technically you can user Windows for servers as well, but I don't recommend it, and if you ever intend to switch to a VPS or hosted server, you will have to pay for a license to use it.</p>
            <p>Anyway, self-hosting on your own hardware is very good for messing around in a local environment, especially if you're not sure if you want to commit to purchasing a VPS. The very basic simple setup steps for this include:</p>
            <ul>
                <li>Have a computer running Linux (I recommend Debian or Ubuntu if this is your first time)</li>
                <li>Install Nginx/Apache/whatever and your software of choice</li>
                <li>Configure your server firewall to allow traffic through (usually ports 80 and 443 are the basic ones you need)</li>
                <li>Configure your router to allow traffic through to your server (only if you know what you are doing and want to allow external network access!)</li>
            </ul>
            <p>If you end up exposing your server to internet traffic at large, you do also have the option of port forwarding from a remote server (I used to have only my Oracle Cloud server whitelisted from my local server, and I would just route all traffic through the Oracle server through to my local one).</p>
            <p>Keep in mind that hosting on your own hardware means you will <i>always</i> have to keep that PC online and connected to your network to access it, otherwise it won't work. I personally enjoy using thin clients (very small business-oriented PCs), and laptops with suspend on lid close disabled work well also.</p>
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            <h1 id="domains">Domain names</h1>
            <h2>Free options</h2>
            <p>I will be honest with you: there are not a ton of options here that I know of. You are pretty much going to be limited to subdomains, but hey, it's better than nothing, right?</p>
            <ul>
                <li><a href="https://freedns.afraid.org">FreeDNS</a> - Through their "subdomains" section, I think you need an account to browse but they have a lot of options</li>
            </ul>
            <h2>Paid options</h2>
            <p>However, if you want your own truly personal domain, you are unfortunately going to have to pay up and there is no way around this, so let me throw a disclaimer out there:</p>
            <p style="font-weight: bold;">Many domain registrars ie. Namecheap are dishonest about the true cost of domains -- your first year will almost always be super discounted, but if you plan to renew be prepared to pay <i>at least</i> two or three times the cost you originally paid.</p>
            <p>I've had domains that I paid about 5$ for in promotional pricing for the first year that ended up being 20-30$ to renew in following years, so it's up to you to decide whether or not that's worth it to you. If you just have one or two you use this may be manageable, but if you get into domain hoarding (a common pitfall!) these costs add up super quick if you intend to keep them more than a year.</p>
            <p>It's also worth noting that domains require you submitting your real personal info, ie. name and address, and while many registrars have offer something like "WHOIS Privacy" to keep your data out of registries, some TLDs (mostly country ones that want you to actually be a resident) prohibit hiding your personal identifying info, so take care that you aren't accidentally exposing your home address online without realising it.</p>
            <p>Anyway, personally I use <a href="https://porkbun.com">Porkbun</a> because I like that they're upfront with what is a promotion price and what renewal costs will be, and their UI is very clean.</p>
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            <h1 id="other">Other stuff</h1>
            <p>If I think of anything else I'll add it here!</p>
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